


Interesting Times

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: 3 Sentence Ficathon, Adventure, Bickering, Boats and Ships, Family, Gen, Golden Age (Narnia), Ocean, Pirates, Prompt Fic, Sister-Sister Relationship, Sisters, Worldbuilding, yes I know it's more than three sentences; shut up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-06
Updated: 2015-03-06
Packaged: 2018-03-16 13:47:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3490622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I am never getting on a ship with you again," Susan proclaimed with great and injured dignity as their Galman merchant transport and its piratical attacker sank, smoldering, into the seas off the western shore of Terebinthia.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Interesting Times

**Author's Note:**

> This ficlet was written on 2/9/15 for [saoirse7](http://saoirse7.livejournal.com), in response to the [Three Sentence Ficathon](http://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/119267.html) prompt: _[Narnia, Lucy& Susan, adventures of their own](http://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/119267.html?thread=3701987#cmt3701987)_. It got a little out of hand. Oops?

"I am never getting on a ship with you again," Susan proclaimed with great and injured dignity as their Galman merchant transport and its piratical attacker sank, smoldering, into the seas off the western shore of Terebinthia. "In fact," she continued, "given this latest proof that I'm right about our curse, I think we should make it an official royal policy not to be within five miles of each other for more than a week at a time, with the exception of Cair Paravel itself."

"We are _not_ cursed to cause chaos whenever we're together, and in any case, it's far better for us to face pirates and other perils than to let them threaten people less equipped to deal with unexpected adventures," Lucy said. She braced her feet against Susan's seat and dipped the oars of their stolen dinghy into the ruffled waters. It was wretchedly difficult to make any progress eastward against the wind, not to mention she kept knocking into bits of floating debris.

As she raised the oars, a pirate breached the surface and made a desperate grasp for the edge of the boat.

Susan hauled him in, knocked him out, and began tying him up with their other two captives.

"This sort of thing never happens to Peter and Edmund," she said. "And yet here we are. Might I remind you of the phoenix that stole you away when we went riding along the shore near the Shribble. Or the Sarovencian raiding party we surprised when visiting Cauldron Pool. Or the time we _fell down a well_ and spent a fortnight wandering an abandoned mine infested with Cruels and Boggles and the People of the Toadstools."

"That could have happened to anyone!"

"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is a pattern, and we're well past that by now," said Susan. She looked over her shoulder toward the foundering ships. "This is absurd. We're much too far west to reach land without a sail, and it's obvious that nobody is escaping that mess in anything with an intact hull. We might as well row back and see if there are any other survivors."

"But our cover story--"

"Will be in shreds by the time Windswift persuades someone to sail out and rescue us," Susan pointed out. "Any wind-weaver may tame a dumb hawk, to gather its feathers and watch it trace thermals in its flight, just as two sisters traveling together is naught to mark or remember. But two sisters, with black and golden hair, accompanied by a Talking Gyrfalcon..."

Lucy sighed. She had so enjoyed pretending to be an itinerant healer; it seemed a shame to return to the constraints of proper royal dignity ahead of plan. "Bother pirates. People are much less intimidated when one isn't wearing a crown -- though it was annoying to be so summarily whisked away from the boarding party and bundled overboard." She turned the boat around as best she could and began laboriously rowing back toward the wreckage.

"Speak for yourself," said Susan. "I found it quite thoughtful of the captain. Whatever insanity makes you and our brothers eager to hurl yourselves into battles seems to have skipped me, thank the Lion."

"It's not madness. And I know you secretly enjoy adventures!" Lucy said.

"All adventures are disasters," Susan said firmly. "That some of them fail to reach their worst potential depth doesn't make them desirable."

In the belly of the dinghy, one of the tied-up pirates groaned and stirred. Lucy rolled her eyes when Susan refused to silence him again, and instead turned her attention to tearing strips from her skirt and tying them into a makeshift wind-net. The breeze stilled, then shifted, spiraling upward to draw away the smoke as they approached the burning carcass of their ship.

"You couldn't have done that sooner?" Lucy asked.

"Not at any greater distance," Susan said through a frown of concentration. "I can't hold the weave for long, either, so whatever you're planning, I suggest you be quick."

Lucy eyed the tilted, sinking ship, nudged the dinghy along its keel until she was within reach of a trailing rope, and nodded. "Right. I'm going to search for survivors. If I'm not back in, oh, five minutes, row away to the east and wait for me to swim free."

She gathered her breath and leapt across the water.

**Author's Note:**

> Someday I may explain what exactly Susan and Lucy were doing undercover in Terebinthia. But today is not that day.
> 
> (Also, yes, the phoenix was totally a reference to [Queen Lucy, the Firebird, and the Death of Koschei the Deathless](http://archiveofourown.org/works/510796), which takes place about two years before this story. And evidently Susan did at some point return to the Seven Isles and learn the wind-weaving skills that I mentioned glancingly in [Into Something Rich and Strange](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/Lost_Chronicles_of_Narnia/works/989116).)


End file.
